Why I Avoided Christmas This Year

Updated on December 31, 2011

This year I totally avoided the Christmas Holiday.

The only thing that my wife and I did this year was take a long ride to Connecticut to have a meal with my daughter and her boyfriend. That was the big celebration. I think that this year was the culmination of several years of not really feeling the holiday spirit as far as Christmas was concerned.

I lost both of my parents 4 and 6 year ago now respectively and honestly I just feel that their not being here has just left an emptiness inside me that I have not been able to get past. When my father passed away in August of 2005, my mother came to live with us and it was tough.

When it came time to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas it was very hard and of course very emotional. When my mother passed away back in 07, it was devastating for me. She had gone to visit our family in the city, as she had been doing to try and break up her monotony and also to give us a bit of a break since my dad had passed.

I remember the phone call all too well...my cousin calling to tell me that my mother had been admitted to the hospital. She wound up needing an operation and while she came out of that pretty well, she wound up succumbing to something that was caused by the ineptitude of the hospital staff.

I never got to bring her back home to live with us. The phone call from the hospital that she had passed away there to this day still has me very angry and has also left me feeling very cheated because I did not get to spend time with her and try to make things better for her after my dad passed.

That year, I just did not feel like decorating the outside of the house, although we did put up the Christmas Tree, and exchanged our gifts...inside I felt dead. I not exactly sure what my real issue is but I do know that this year was the worst for me. I was working a the local "Dollar Store" and in September, they already had merchandise for the Christmas holidays and to be honest with you, I found it very depressing probably because of how early it was...it wasn't even Halloween yet.

And then the commercials started earlier also. I started to resent them. I wasn't working full time, I was freelancing and trying to make things happen and it was slow going trust me. I just didn't have the heart for it.

And the stores were advertising how early they were opening up on Black Friday, some stores were going o open at midnight, others were opening at 3 and 4am...hell Wallmart wasn't even closed on Thanksgiving! The whole holiday was just one huge opportunity to get Americans to give up the day with their families and get the biggest bargain that a store was offering...all for a gift to give to a family member.

I think I may just keep boycotting Christmas, at least until they stop commercializing it so badly that we forget the real reason to celebrate the holiday in the first place...the birth of Christ and spending time with our family and friends without the expectation of receiving a gift.

Christmas... Bah! Humbug!!

More by this Author

Freelance writing is a competitive way of earning a living, now more than ever.
There are many freelance websites that offer the freelance writer the opportunity to write for freelance clients, some good and so not...

Comments 2 comments

Your conclusion I believe is proper. Yes, the birth of the Christ and the gathering of family and friends, but these must continue 365 days/year... the gifts you share is blessing from Christ and precious memories from family and friends. Happy New Year!

animekid 4 years ago from Upstate NY Author

Hi Ted. thanks for the comment and I wish you a happy new year also filled with much health and success.